‘Dhoom 3’ Is a Bollywood Thriller Set in Chicago

By RACHEL SALTZ

December 22, 2013

The hero of “Dhoom 3” isn’t India’s top cop, Jai Dixit, who’s summoned to Chicago from Mumbai to catch a thief. Jai (Abhishek Bachchan) may be the series’s franchise player, but in each “Dhoom” film, a heroic guest villain has eclipsed him.

In “Dhoom 3,” that’s Sahir (Aamir Khan), a daredevil hard body with a motorcycle and a principled grudge against the Chicago Western Bank. Sahir is also a showman: He runs something called the Great Indian Circus, housed in a lovely neo-Classical pile otherwise known as the Shedd Aquarium.

Written and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, “Dhoom 3” is very much the Aamir Khan show. Pushing 50 but playing 30 or so, Mr. Khan sounds only two notes here, glowering and goofy. But he holds the screen with his physicality, which is almost constantly on display, whether he’s dodging cops or dancing. (Mr. Bachchan, by contrast, has no songs.)

Aamir Khan plays a circus showman with a grudge against a bank in the Hindi film "Dhoom 3."

Yash Raj Films

He also crowds everyone else out of the story. (It would take a spoiler to say why.) The women get particularly short shrift.

Katrina Kaif shows up to dance in Sahir’s circus, but her character is a nonstarter. Then there’s the blond Chicago cop — “intelligence division” — who is so pro forma that even the movie can’t sustain interest in her. She does, though, have this to say when the evil banker demands to know who’s been robbing him: “It’s a thief, sir.”

“Dhoom 2” had fun with the mechanics of crime and crime fighting. This movie can’t be bothered. But true to its franchise, “Dhoom 3,” which opened in more North American theaters than any previous Hindi film, features lots of bang-for-your-buck action sequences. Too many — after the first motorcycle chase, you’ve seen all the director’s moves and most of Chicago.

For all its New World-conquering bravura, “Dhoom 3,” in which tears are courted and destinies forged before the opening credits roll, can’t hide its Hindi-film heart.

As circus master, Sahir creates a show that is pure Bollywood. Muscles bulging, he flies on a rope like Tarzan, before landing onstage in a glossy production number with trampolines, gyrating bodies and fire. Needless to say, the Great Indian Circus wows ’em in Chicago.